Zayd ibn Harithah

Chose slavery with the Prophet ﷺ over freedom with his father; heaven wrote his name into the Book forever.

The account

Zayd ibn Harithah was stolen as a boy, sold in Makkah, gifted to Khadijah, and given by her to the Prophet ﷺ, who freed him. When Zayd's grieving father tracked him down with ransom, the Prophet offered Zayd the choice; Zayd chose the man who had never been anything but light to him: I have seen from this man what makes me choose him over everyone. The Prophet adopted him at the Kaaba, and Makkah called him Zayd ibn Muhammad until revelation ended adoption's fictions and restored lineages: call them by their fathers. To compensate that loss with an honor no companion shares, Allah named him in the Qur'an itself: "when Zayd had concluded from her what he needed" (33:37).

He was the Prophet's most trusted commander, leading expedition after expedition, and the only man beside whose name love is recorded twice: the beloved, and son of the beloved, said of Usama his son. He accompanied the Prophet to Ta'if and bled shielding him. At Mu'tah he held the banner first of the three, and fell first, a freed slave commanding the nobles of Quraysh by appointment of heaven's Messenger.

The facts

Unique honorNamed in the Qur'an (33:37)
The choiceThe Prophet over his own father
RankMost trusted commander
Fell atMu'tah, first of the three

The Qur'an on it

فَلَمَّا قَضَىٰ زَيْدٌ مِّنْهَا وَطَرًا زَوَّجْنَاكَهَا

So when Zayd had concluded from her what he needed, We married her to you.

Qur'an 33:37

Read beside it

The words

Lights that name it

The only companion named in the Qur'an was a freed slaveZayd ibn Haritha · died at Mu'ta, 629 CE

On the Path

31Taif Rejectionالطائف

People beside it

Places

BeforeSalman al-Farisi AfterZubayr ibn al-Awwam

On the Companions page The Path